Postdoc Positions in Biological Physics
Are you interested in developing and applying theory to living systems on various scales, ranging from molecules to cells and tissues? Are you a theorist with strong expertise in statistical physics, soft/ condensed matter theory or continuum mechanics of fluids or solids?
The Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI‑PKS) in Dresden announces the opening of several postdoctoral positions in the area of Biological Physics and the opportunity to work with the group leaders of the biological physics division: Fridtjof Brauns, Pierre Haas, Frank Jülicher, Christina Kurzthaler, and Marko Popović. Our research questions range across the physical principles underlying the spatiotemporal organization of cells and tissues, the collective processes involved in cell decision-making, the driving forces at the origin of life starting from inanimate molecules and the physics of active matter.
Our institute offers an excellent research environment due to the possibility of a large variety of local, interdisciplinary collaborations with experimental and theoretical physicists, biologists, and bioinformaticians, for example at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, the Biotechnology Center, the Center for Systems Biology and the Center for Regenerative Therapies. Our institute also actively participates in the Cluster of Excellence 'Physics of Life' of the Technical University Dresden. Besides an excellent research infrastructure, the institute provides a stimulating environment due to an active in‑house workshop program and a large number of long‑term visiting scientists from all over the world.
Interested?
Please see for application instructions.
The application deadline is May 15, 2026 .
You are welcome to reach out to us at
The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals.
The Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in those areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply.
Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems
Nöthnitzer Straße 38
01187 Dresden
Germany